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Halibut Steaks

A halibut steak coated in beaten egg and cracker crumbs, fried and served with a butter, pepper, salt, and lemon juice mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Halibut Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and wipe the halibut steaks.

  2. Dip the steaks in the beaten egg.

  3. Roll the steaks in cracker crumbs seasoned with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the steaks in hot dripping or broil them on a grill.

  2. Serve on a hot dish, rubbing both sides with a mixture of butter, pepper, salt, and lemon juice.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Halibut steaks
The main protein, which is cooked through by frying or broiling.
Beaten egg
Binds the cracker crumbs to the fish so the coating adheres during cooking.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating that protects the fish during frying.
Dripping or oil
Conducts heat to brown the coating and crisp the surface.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the finished steaks.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and mild fish.

The step that matters

Frying in hot dripping. The fat must be hot enough to crisp the crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy, and the fish can steam inside the crust instead of browning.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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